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Law & Disorder: SWAT called, bomb-making suspect surrenders

04/21/09 - Arrest photo of Doni Ray Brown. He escaped from the Putnam County jail April 15, 2009 and is one of two suspects in a homicide at the beginning of a days-long manhunt. (Photo from The St. Johns County Sheriffs Office)

101212 -- Dalvin Lorenzo Denson ---- Jurors convicted a 20-year-old Jacksonville man Thursday of shooting two drug dealers he was trying to rob. Dalvin Lorenzo Denson is guilty of two counts each of attempted first- and second-degree murder and one count of attempted armed robbery and carrying a concealed firearm, according to the State Attorney's Office. Read more at Jacksonville.com: http://jacksonville.com/news/crime/2012-10-12/story/20-year-old-jacksonville-man-guilty-shooting-2-drug-robbery#ixzz297BkAwDF

FACEBOOK--Kessler L. Holzendorf.

Chambers

dan.scanlan@jacksonville.com Jacksonville SWAT offficers head down Allamandra Drive at Lake Shore Boulevard on Friday during a two-hour standoff with a man sought on a federal bomb-making warrant, according to the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office.

Timothy Fletcher appears in Judge Wendy Berger's courtroom before being sentenced to death for the 2009 murder of his step-grandmother, 66-year-old Helen Key Googe, on Friday afternoon, October 12, 2012. By DARON DEAN, daron.dean@staugustine.com

About two hours into a Jacksonville SWAT standoff with a bomb-making suspect, police took the man into custody with no one harmed.

Police surrounded the Lake Shore neighborhood Friday after the man being served a warrant by U.S. deputy marshals barricaded himself inside his Waterside Drive home, said Sheriff’s Office spokesman Shannon Hartley.

Douglas Edwards Chambers Jr., 56, had failed to appear in court on the charges. Details of the charges were not released.

Hartley said he didn’t know if there were any weapons or explosives in the house.

The Sheriff’s Office had several streets blocked next to Lake Shore Park and Hyde Park Elementary School.

Dan Scanlan

Apparent drive-by shooting kills man

A shooting victim is dead in what police are investigating as a drive-by attack in Northwest Jacksonville.

The male victim was found on the road in the 1500 block of West 35th Street following the shooting about 11 a.m. Friday, said Sgt. B.G. Kreeger of the Sheriff’s Office.

Kreeger said police did not have anyone in custody late Friday morning. The victim was taken to Shands Jacksonville hospital where he died.

No other details were immediately available.

Dana Treen

Motorcyclist dies in crash on Baymeadows

A Jacksonville motorcyclist was killed in a predawn crash on Baymeadows Road Friday, authorities said.

The Highway Patrol report did not indicate if Jones was wearing a helmet.

Clifford Davis/Dana Treen

Holzendorf convicted of mail, wire fraud

Kessler Holzendorf, the son of former state Sen. Betty Holzendorf and former Jacksonville City Councilman King Holzendorf, was found guilty Thursday of 31 conspiracy, mail fraud and wire fraud charges.

Holzendorf was indicted in April 2011 on 15 counts of mail fraud, 15 counts of wire fraud and a single count of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud.

The indictment said Holzendorf, who was listed as a commercial loan specialist for Jacksonville’s Florida Business Finance Corp., and co-defendant Mark Gruszecki, who was listed as a business finance consultant, loan specialist and licensed broker for the company, inflated sales prices in 15 home purchases to receive commissions and fees. The inflations were the result of claims to the lending companies that improvements to the properties, mostly swimming pools, were made when they actually were not. It said the men then sent kickbacks to the buyers whom they recruited.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office said the scheme netted commissions of about $339,000, mortgage broker compensation of approximately $189,000 and illegal kickbacks to buyers of about $1.1 million.

Holzendorf’s sentencing is scheduled for Jan. 13. Gruszecki is scheduled to go to trial this month.

Charles Broward

Shooting victim was awaiting sentencing

A Jacksonville man killed while standing outside with friends at 26th and Haines streets Wednesday evening was awaiting sentencing in another murder case.

Antonyo Antwan Harold, 27, was shot about 6:15 p.m. by gunmen who drove up and got out before opening fire, police said. Several shots were fired.

Harold, who lived on the block, was pronounced dead at the scene.

The shooters got back into the car and fled, police said.

Harold pleaded guilty to kidnapping/inflicting bodily harm or terrorizing a victim in January 2011 involving the death of 28-year-old Willie Golden. His sentencing had been deferred 11 times and was next scheduled for Nov. 5, court records show.

He had testified against DeShawn Leon Green in Golden’s August 2009 killing. Harold had helped force another man to take a group of men to Golden’s home where he was killed.

Green was sentenced to life, while Harold’s bail was reduced from $2 million to $50,000 Feb. 9, 2011. He posted bond the same day and was released while awaiting sentencing.

Green still has additional murder cases pending.

Scott Butler

Man guilty in shooting attack on 2 dealers

Jurors convicted a 20-year-old Jacksonville man Thursday of shooting two drug dealers he was trying to rob.

Dalvin Lorenzo Denson is guilty of two counts each of attempted first- and second-degree murder and one count of attempted armed robbery and carrying a concealed firearm, according to the State Attorney’s Office.

In September 2011 Denson set up a drug deal with Suad Rizvanovic and Meho Pasic, now 20 and 19, and shot one in the chest and the other in the leg on South Bend Circle. Denson will be sentenced next month and faces 50 years to life.

Rizvanovic and Pasic have since recovered and await sentencing for marijuana possession, court records show.

Scott Butler

BAKER

2 dead in wrong-way collision on I-10

Two people are dead and seven hospitalized following a wrong-way collision on Interstate 10 in Baker County early Friday.

Emile McPherson Whitney, 47, of Ocala entered the interstate at County Road 228 in Macclenny and headed west in the eastbound lane in the 2:30 a.m. accident, according to the Florida Highway Patrol. The Jeep Grand Cherokee collided with a loaded eastbound Honda Odyssey van near the County Road 121 exit.

Highway Patrol Capt. Keith Gaston said the van was carrying employees who were returning from work at a Lake City restaurant.

Two people in the van, Kaw Lay, 37, and Ta Nu, 47, both of Jacksonville, were killed in the collision, the Highway Patrol said.

Whitney, who was wearing a seat belt, was taken to Shands Jacksonville with critical injuries.

Six of the remaining passengers in the van, ages 27 to 58, were taken to Shands with critical injuries. Van driver Nge Thay, 20, suffered minor injuries. All are from Jacksonville.

The crash is still being investigated.

Dana Treen

CLAY

Woman in nursing home shooting dies

The 68-year-old Orange Park woman shot Wednesday by her husband, who then killed himself, has died.

Patricia Stanton’s condition steadily declined since James Stanton, 75, visited her at the Life Care Center of Orange Park on Kingsley Avenue and shot her before killing himself. The Clay County Sheriff’s Office said she died Friday.

She had been a short-term rehabilitation patient at the facility but also had some other health issues. Whether that was a motive for James Stanton wasn’t entirely clear.

Scott Butler

PUTNAM

Escapees sentenced to death, life in prison

Doni Ray Brown and Timothy Wayne Fletcher are set to die behind bars after escaping from them in a 2009 Putnam County jailbreak that escalated into a slaying.

On Friday Circuit Judge Wendy Berger in St. Johns County sentenced Fletcher, 28, to death after he was previously convicted of murder, escape, auto theft, home invasion and robbery.

Earlier in the day Brown, 26, pleaded no contest to similar charges and was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole by Circuit Judge Carlos E. Mendoza in Putnam County.

The escapees led police on a three-day manhunt after they stole two vehicles and killed Fletcher’s 66-year old stepgrandmother, Helen Key Googe. They were captured in the Pomona Park area.

Larry Hannan

ST. JOHNS

Search fails to turn up missing woman

After several hours of searching a wooded area Friday in Putnam County, St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office officials did not find the remains of Rebecca Ware.

St. Johns County deputies with help from the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office searched near Beech Street on the north side of Palatka from 8 a.m. until just after noon.

Ware, then 34, was reported missing in 2010 and is presumed to be dead though her body has not been found. Timothy Lee Johnson, 42, has been charged with second-degree murder in the case.

Johnson had been in a relationship with Ware before her disappearance. He is scheduled for a pretrial in November.